1–What is the title of your latest release? IN PLACE OF FEAR 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Death stalks the streets of Edinburgh at the birth of the NHS. In this city of lawyers, who will risk a scandal in the name of justice? 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? Easy – my home city. 4–Would you hang out with your sleuth in real life? Oh, in a heartbeat. I love her. But I wasn’t alive in 1948. 5–What are three words that describe your sleuth? Upstart, bewildered, determined 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? From contemporary accounts: of all the odorous places in this district of the city – tanning sheds, brewery, distillery, stables, slaughterhouse – the confectionary factory was the stinkiest of all. 7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done? Answer: I wait till I’m done. I don’t even read as I go along. 8–What’s your favorite foodie indulgence? See’s Candy. 9–Describe your writing space/office! The color scheme is seafoam and terra cotta (my favorite) and it’s full of books – both mine and other people’s – and full of the…

Looking for an escape? Cozy Mystery author Daisy Bateman shares her Top 5 Destination mysteries so you can travel from the comfort from your own home… which we all need right now!  *** Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers Harriet Vane, Sayers’s mystery-writer love interest for her hero Lord Peter Whimsey, returns to visit her old college at Oxford, only to find that the place is being plagued by a prankster whose attacks are growing in seriousness. Called on to help, she reaches out to Lord Peter, and together they unravel who is out to bring down the tight-knit community of female scholars. Less a mystery than a thinly-veiled contemplation of the author’s own artistic life and choices, there is plenty of time for exploration of the “city of dreaming spires,” with its famous architecture, to say nothing of a classic scene of punting on the River Thames. Scot Free by Catriona McPherson Most people wouldn’t consider California’s Central Valley a vacation destination, especially in the height of summer, when temperatures can easily reach triple digits (but it’s a dry heat!). One of them is Lexy Campbell, recently transplanted from Scotland to the fictional Valley town of Cuento and even more…

Lexy (spelled Leagsaidh in Scots Gaelic, but she’s given up) lives in the fictional town of Cuento, CA, smack-dab between Sacramento, San Francisco and Napa. She loves California! She loves the insane friendliness, the endless sunshine, the street trees that drop grapefruit on her head . . .  and she especially loves going out to eat. Here are Lexy’s top five local(ish) foodie hotspots, imagined as a single day-long blow-out to end all blow-outs. Benedict for Breakfast at Katie’s Place, Carmel Carmel is picture-postcard-perfect California, with its gingerbread cottages, huge sweep of white beach, and rail-thin millionaire ladies. Katie’s Place is a kind of miracle. It’s where people go to eat carbs. Yes, carbs. The breakfast menu is (literally) to die for: waffles, pancakes, hash browns, biscuits . . . but it’s hard to see past the benedicts. A split muffin, three-count-them-three perfectly poached eggs, a zingy but comforting blanket of hollandaise and a middle layer of . . . you name it. Smoked salmon (Nova Scotia Benedict), shrimp (Cajun Benedict), steak (New York Benedict), or Lexy’s favourite: Irish Benedict with a high heap of home-made corn beef hash. Fish for lunch at Sailor Jack’s, Benicia A drivable distance up…